20/20 Foresight

InfiniStream provides high-end tracking of absolutely everything.

InfiniStream puts some serious hardware and software to work to make this playback happen. The capture engine hardware sits in a 4U rack-mount cabinet weighing roughly 150 pounds. This substantial cabinet holds a server with two Gigabit Ethernet and two 10/100Base-T network interfaces, 1 GB of RAM and nearly 3 TB of raw storage that format to 2.2 TB in a RAID 5 configuration. InfiniStream is powered by three redundant power supplies; all its power supplies and hard disks are hot-swappable.

When installed, the Gigabit Ethernet ports are used for network monitoring. One 10/100 interface is designated for console and data-mining application access, the other for technicians. The vendor recommends keeping the second port disconnected unless maintenance on the system is under way.

InfiniStream isn't for minor players. With a starting price of $75,000, you have to be seriously in the game.

Use With Care

Two software applications are needed to configure and manage Infinistream. The first, icesetup, is a text-based configuration program for initial system setup and major operational shifts. The mining console is a Windows application used for searching, examining and replaying captured and stored network data.